


Shadows In The Light

by crowleyshouseplant



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24477856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crowleyshouseplant/pseuds/crowleyshouseplant
Summary: Glimmer and Catra talk about the first portal.
Relationships: Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28





	Shadows In The Light

They sat back to back with the green force field between them. It thrummed against Catra’s shoulder bones. Her tail curled around her ankles. It was hard to tell the time here. The passing of the days, of the nights. She had no idea how long they had been here on Horde Prime’s ship, basking in his eternal light or whatever. 

Catra rolled her eyes. 

This was the third time she had visited Sparkles. Breaking the rules was something she knew how to do best. She wasn’t afraid of Horde Prime. He was just another Hordak, just another Shadow Weaver. She knew how to survive people like them. She knew how to win when all they wanted her to do was lose—and she had been so close to winning, permanently. 

“I thought I’d hate you,” Glimmer said, breaking the silence. 

Catra’s ears twitched. “I still don’t like you.” The two main interactions she’d had with Glimmer had been very different from each other. The first when they had tried to exchange her for Entrapta – then when she used Adora as bait and had really come in with the blinding sparkles. Like she had grown up in between. She still wasn’t sure what Glimmer had intended to do to her—only what she hoped Glimmer had come to do. 

“It was your fault, you know.” 

Catra closed her eyes. She could get up, right now, and leave. She was tired of hearing how it was always her fault, her failing, her never being good enough. But the energy against her back was warm, and the corridors leading to her rooms were cold. She did not want to walk the endless lengths of ship with the same-faced clones. So she stayed. “You’ll have to be more specific.” 

“When you took Adora and opened the portal.” 

Catra’s fur stood on end. Her tail bristled. Her ears pointed downwards. Did she want to stay and hear this? The portal universe still flashed in her nightmares. They way Adora and she had pushed and shoved each other around—it was the easiest way to be close to her. How she had gripped Adora’s jacket to pull them both down into the nothingness of the void so they never would have been. Her mouth dried up. 

“Entrapta told us how to close it. Remove the sword. But whoever did, would have to stay behind, trapped. Adora was going to do it.” 

Of course Adora was going to do it. That’s what she did. That’s what she always did. That idiot. Catra’s claws dug into the metal. It screeched, pulling her back into the present, to where they were on Horde Prime’s ship, with the thrum of the force field between her and a princess who would not shut up. “What stopped her?” 

Something rustled. If Catra looked over her shoulder, she would be face to face with Glimmer. She drew her knees closer to her chest, her tail wrapped even more snugly around her ankles. “My mom. She sacrificed herself so Adora wouldn’t have to. It’s one of the last things I threw in her face.” Before she left to confront Catra and Hordak alone. Before she left to unleash their weapon upon them all. 

Catra understood that. 

Glimmer’s voice thickened with sobs. Catra shook and the force field glitched between them. She had known that Bright Moon’s queen was gone. She just didn’t know how she was gone. 

“It was so easy to blame you for pulling the lever. It was so easy to blame Adora because by that time there was only Adora and my mom left in the world. According to Adora, I had already disappeared with Bow.” 

Catra’s own accusations against Adora rang in her ears. She rubbed her hand along the black sleeve of her arm. She certainly was living with her choices now. Maybe they all were. 

“And then I did what I’d never thought I’d do. I finished what you started when I balanced the planet, when I brought Scorpia to her runestone. I put everyone at risk! I made my mom's sacrifice—not even seem to matter.” 

Catra turned her head. Glimmer had, indeed, moved to face Catra, but now her own face was buried in her gloved hands. Her entire body rocked with her sobs because her actions had pulled them from Despondos, and they had seen the stars for the first time, along with the bright light of ships. The energy had brought Horde Prime right to them, right to their home, when she had only wanted to have something to fight back (and Catra understood that too). She had done what Hordak and Catra had tried so hard to do—but this was what winning was like. It wasn’t what you thought it would be. You couldn’t win without losing. 

Catra could taste the sea when she messaged Scorpia, when she had shared that secret. And she had tasted salt again when she had found out no one was listening. Because Scorpia had left her behind, had abandoned her. 

Catra didn’t turn away when she spoke. She didn’t know why she was going to say what she was going to say. It would only make Glimmer angry at her. “Entrapta tried to stop me.” She remembered Bow and Glimmer on the banks of the river. Crestfallen that their righteous crusade to save Entrapta wasn’t needed, wasn’t wanted. Entrapta was on the side of science, after all, and science was on the side of the Horde. 

Glimmer stilled herself, though there were still tears. They looked at each other. Even though she was without her magic, her hair still sparkled. Glimmer’s voice quavered only a little. “Entrapta?” 

Catra nodded. “When she realized Adora was right, that it would destroy everything, she tried to stop me, and was even going to tell Hordak that they couldn’t do it.” 

“What did you do?” Glimmer asked. 

Catra wondered if she knew she was holding her breath. “The same thing that I did to Adora when I realized she had left me for you.” 

Glimmer was no longer crying. She held herself stiff and tense, like she braced herself for something. 

“I electrocuted her, and I sent her to Beast Island. People don’t come back from Beast Island. They go to be forgotten.” Catra didn’t say that she threatened the same to Scorpia. What would have happened if Scorpia had been brave? What would have happened if Catra had-- 

“I know Entrapta is on Beast Island,” Glimmer said. 

Catra’s ears pricked forward. 

“Scorpia came and told us so we could rescue her.” 

The words hung between them. Scorpia was with Adora. Scorpia was with Adora on Bright Moon. Scorpia was with Adora on Bright Moon with Shadow Weaver. 

The white light in the corridors behind them seemed to grow brighter. The forcefield hum between them grew louder. 

Catra sagged deeper into her haunches. _You’re a bad friend_ was the last thing Scorpia had ever said to her. Scorpia had gone to the Rebellion to rescue Entrapta. What was it that Scorpia always said about herself: brave, strong, loyal; gives great hugs. 

She somehow forced out the words. “Did they succeed?” 

“I don’t know.” Glimmer’s face was pale. “I ordered them not to go, and they did anyway. That’s when I decided to use the weapon because if they didn’t trust me I didn’t trust them. And Light Hope used me.” She made a motion that Catra recognized anywhere: two fists that should have glowed with blinding purple sparkles if they were home instead of here. 

Catra understood what it meant to be used. She understood the raging pain of it. The powerlessness of it. The futility of it. The helplessness. “I guess we’ve both made the same mistakes, Sparkles.” 

Glimmer sniffled and wiped her eyes with her wrist. “I guess so, Horde Scum.” 

They turned away from each other so they were once more back to back, and they sat with their eyes closed against the bright lights of Horde Prime’s ship. 


End file.
